Amazon Falls Prey to Lawyer Scam

Recently, Amazon was tricked by a fake law firm into removing a product from their website, which cost the seller $200,000 in sales. An Amazon seller stated his product was removed from Amazon, because of a complaint. Experts state that Amazon is known for not properly vetting seller complaints. The merchant put in an appeal last month, but Amazon could not resolve it for a while which made him lose $200,000.

Before Prime Day in July, the owner of Brushes4Less received a suspension notice for his best-selling product, which was a toothbrush head replacement. The product was suspended because of an intellectual property violation. To resolve the matter, the merchant had to contact the law firm that filed the complaint. However, the law firm did not exist. The number provided did not work and belonged to another firm in Pittsburgh called Robb Leonard Mulvihill. The person who complained was not registered to practice law in Pennsylvania, according to CNBC. The owner of Brushes4Less told his story to CNBC but asked that his name be protected for privacy concerns. Amazon was tricked into shutting down the seller’s #1 product days before the website’s busiest shopping event in the year. The seller complains that Amazon failed to do five minutes of detective work, and complains that Amazon fails to do any work. Hot items become booted and innocent sellers are suspended coming from viral sellers who are masquerading as lawyers. Last year, sellers like Nike and Michael Kors said they have also received violation claims even when they are buying inventory from legitimate distributors. Paul Dworianyn, the founder of Amazon Seller Consulting, says, “Virtually any person can push the right buttons to get Amazon’s attention for particular issues.” Amazon faces many comments from fake lawyers who are actually competitors. The Brushes4Less brand generates about $2 million in sales just from Amazon. He also sells wine tote bags and brushes for auto parts. Amazon did not provide a comment for the Brushes 4Less incident. For sellers, Amazon does not have much to offer by way of guidance in fixing IP issues.

There needs to be a better way of resolving these issues; Texas business litigation lawyers express the need for businesses to be able to work in good faith with their partners. Amazon needs to explore and play around with different options. Amazon receives many complaints, but the internal teams are overwhelmed by these complaints; therefore, they are very slow to react to fake submissions. Amazon can implement new tools and guidelines before removing a product from the website. Amazon will continue to suspend accounts unless they ensure IP addresses and the validity of complaints. Businesses lose a lot of revenue for these mishaps, and even so, some law firms may receive slander even when they are not responsible for filing the complaint. Building guidelines and transparency will prevent problems between the buyer and seller and the law. These complaints are an unfair way of competition.